The taste of Chivay

After visiting Arequipa, we travelled to Puno. Because this trip is quite long, we stayed for a day in a small place in the mountains called Chivay. It was the perfect opportunity to visit the Cruz del Condor.

This magical place is one of the few, where you can watch these beautiful big birds flying. We were very lucky to see around ten birds flying together. It’s a breathtaking view: to one of the deepest canyons in the world and condors, flying on distance of a couple of meters, free in their natural area.

Lunch in Chivay

In restaurant Colca Turisristico they serve buffet lunch for 30 sol per person (less than 10 euro). I found it really cheap for the quality and quantity of the food they offer. There are dishes for every taste.

As an entrée, I tried the trout ceviche. Since Chivay is far from the coast, they don’t prepare the ceviche with sea fish, but with trout. This is the way you can also eat it in Puno or Cuzco, made of freshwater fish. It is fresh, delicious and colorful. And this lime flavor … Yum!

For the main course I chose for a sort of potato croquet filled with alpaca meat and vegetables, fried empanadas with silky guacamole, tamale wrapped in a corn husk, vegetarian quinoa and alpaca skewers. Alpaca meat has a very low-level of cholesterol and taste like very tender beef.

We couldn’t go without a proper dessert. There was a super delicious kind of bread pudding with condensed milk and swiss merengue. It was so yummy!

I also tried the chocolate bar, which was a trio of quinoa, kiwicha* and maca, covered with chocolate. I’m not a big chocolate fan, so it wasn’t my favorite.

The end of the meal was good though, since I tried cactus fruit (also called prickly pear or cactus fig). It fruit was so fresh and sweet. It tasted a little bit like a water melon with small eatable seeds. It seems that it is also very healthy, since it contains a high level of fibers, magnesium ans vitamin C.

*kiwicha or amaranth is grain cultivated for centuries by Aztecs and Incas. Similar to quinoa, it comes from the Andes. It’s completely gluten-free and it contains high level of protein. It also contain Lysine – an amino acid mainly found in non-vegetarian diets, which makes this grain a good source of valuable nutrients for all vegans out there. This grain is still unknown in Europe, but something is telling me that very soon we will have it in the list with superfoods.